Family medicine is one of the largest parts of the U.S. primary care workforce, yet the country continues to face uneven access and projected physician shortages. The statistics below describe the specialty’s training pipeline, workforce, community reach, demographic pressures, employment, and pay.
Contents
- Residency match and training pipeline
- Family medicine in the physician workforce
- Primary care access and projected shortages
- Training in underserved and rural communities
- Population and health-care demand
- Employment and national wages
- Selected state and metro statistics
Residency match and training pipeline
The National Resident Matching Program figures reported by the American Academy of Family Physicians show a large but still incomplete family medicine training pipeline. In the 2026 NRMP Match, 4,613 family medicine positions were filled in the first round. AAFP said more than 5,400 positions were expected to be filled after the process concluded, describing that as the largest class ever of new family medicine residents. These are match-cycle figures, not a count of physicians already practicing.
The 2024 match provides a fuller baseline. Family medicine offered 5,231 positions, up from 5,107 in 2023, and matched 4,595 students and graduates, up from 4,530. Its 2024 fill rate was 87.8%, compared with 88.7% in 2023. Family medicine represented 13.6% of all positions offered and 12.8% of all positions filled in that match.
Before the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program, family medicine had 636 unfilled positions after the 2024 NRMP Match. The specialty’s historical fill rate has varied considerably: the AAFP reports a record low of 76.2% in 2003 and a record high of 96.7% in 2018. The comparison shows why a single annual rate should be read as part of a longer trend rather than as a permanent condition.
| Family medicine match measure | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Positions offered | 5,107 | 5,231 |
| Students and graduates matched | 4,530 | 4,595 |
| Fill rate | 88.7% | 87.8% |
Source: AAFP 2024 Match results.
Family medicine had 796 categorical programs in the 2024 NRMP Match, the most of any specialty. U.S. MD seniors ranked 22,082 family medicine-categorical positions, while DO seniors ranked 22,635. The applicant counts were 1,721 U.S. MD seniors and 1,912 DO seniors for family medicine-categorical programs. Smaller combined pathways included 6 U.S. MD senior applicants and 1 DO senior applicant for family medicine-preventive medicine, plus 38 U.S. MD senior applicants for family medicine-psychiatry and 18 for family medicine-emergency medicine.
The composition of matched physicians also changed between 2023 and 2024. Family medicine matched 1,535 U.S. MD seniors in 2024, 36 more than in 2023. It matched 1,493 DO seniors, 21 fewer than in 2023, and 749 U.S. IMGs, 44 fewer. Foreign IMGs increased from 562 to 706, or 144 more than in 2023.
AAFP’s 2024 figures also report several different rates, each with a different denominator. Among people in each group who matched to family medicine, the rates were 29.3% for U.S. MD seniors, 28.5% for DO seniors, and 27.8% for IMGs. Among people in each group who matched to any specialty, 23.5% of U.S. IMGs and 12.0% of foreign IMGs matched to family medicine. The reported family medicine fill rates by group were 29.3% for U.S. MD seniors, 28.5% for DO seniors, 14.3% for U.S. IMGs, and 13.5% for non-U.S. IMGs. AAFP also reports the corresponding rates of each group matching to family medicine as 8.3%, 20.1%, 23.5%, and 12.0%, respectively.
Family medicine in the physician workforce
The Health Resources and Services Administration counted 107,536 professionally active family medicine physicians in 2022, including 100,650 patient care physicians. The professionally active total includes physicians working in the profession, while the patient-care figure is narrower. For all primary care specialties combined, HRSA reported 279,194 professionally active physicians and 257,810 patient care physicians in 2022.
Internists and family medicine physicians together made up almost a quarter of all patient care practicing physicians in 2022, according to HRSA. Across every specialty, 933,788 physicians were professionally active in the U.S. workforce and 800,355 were reported as patient care practicing physicians.
These categories matter when interpreting workforce statistics. A count of professionally active physicians is not interchangeable with a count of doctors providing patient care, and neither count alone describes how many clinicians are available in a particular community. Work setting, geography, specialty mix, and patient need all affect practical access.
Primary care access and projected shortages
HRSA reported that about 75 million people lived in a primary care Health Professional Shortage Area as of June 14, 2024. This is a population affected by a designated shortage area, not a count of people without any physician relationship. It nevertheless illustrates the scale of the access challenge relevant to family medicine and other primary care specialties.
HRSA projected an overall shortage of 187,130 full-time-equivalent physicians by 2037. Separately, the agency projected a shortage of 70,610 primary care physicians by 2038, including family medicine, general internal medicine, geriatrics, and pediatrics. The two forecasts use different years and scopes, so they should not be added together.
An earlier Association of American Medical Colleges study, published in 2017, projected a shortage of between 40,800 and 104,900 physicians by 2030. Its projected primary care shortage ranged from 8,700 to 43,100 physicians by 2030. The AAMC also projected U.S. population growth of about 12% by 2030 and said more than one-third of all active physicians would be age 65 or older within 10 years. Those projections are historical estimates from the study’s publication period and are not substitutes for later HRSA forecasts.
The AAMC study estimated that, if utilization barriers were removed, the U.S. would have needed up to 96,800 additional doctors in 2015. That estimate concerns modeled need under a specified assumption; it does not mean 96,800 vacancies existed in that year.
Training in underserved and rural communities
HRSA’s Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education program offers another way to view the training pipeline. Since the program began in 2011, 3,090 new primary care physicians and dentists completed residencies and entered the workforce. Of those, THCGME produced 1,895 new family medicine physicians since 2011.
The location of training sites is also quantified. THCGME training sites are 67% in medically underserved communities, 49% primary care sites, and 20% rural. These percentages describe the program’s training-site distribution; they do not state that every graduate remains in the same community or that the categories are mutually exclusive.
The community setting is important because a national workforce total can obscure local gaps. A specialty may have more than 100,000 professionally active physicians nationally while specific rural or underserved areas continue to have difficulty attracting and retaining primary care clinicians. Training location is one measurable part of that distribution, alongside the number of graduates and the designation of shortage areas.
Population and health-care demand
Age structure is one reason demand for primary care is expected to remain significant. HRSA reported that 17% of the U.S. population, or 58 million people, were age 65 or older in 2022. By 2050, about 23% of the population, or 82 million people, are projected to be age 65 or older. The second figure is a projection, not a count of people already living in that age group.
The AAMC’s 2017 study made a nearer-term aging projection: the population age 65 and older was expected to grow by 55% by 2030, while the population age 75 and older was expected to grow by 73%. These are study-era projections and use a different horizon from HRSA’s 2050 estimate.
Health-care spending provides additional context. In 2022, the United States spent $13,493 per person on health care, equal to 17.3% of gross domestic product, according to HRSA. Spending per person and share of GDP describe national health-system scale; they do not identify the amount paid for a particular family medicine visit or the income of an individual physician.
Employment and national wages
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 107,510 workers nationally in the family medicine physician occupation in 2025. The occupation’s 2025 mean annual wage was $255,820, and its mean hourly wage was $122.99. The median hourly wage was $117.39.
For comparison, BLS reported 112,010 nationwide jobs in 2023 and a mean annual wage of $240,790. The 2023 median hourly wage was $108.00. Annual wage percentiles in that year were $68,890 at the 10th percentile, $152,810 at the 25th percentile, and $224,640 at the 50th percentile.
| BLS family medicine physician measure | 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Nationwide jobs or workers reported | 112,010 jobs | 107,510 workers |
| Mean annual wage | $240,790 | $255,820 |
| Median hourly wage | $108.00 | $117.39 |
Sources: BLS May 2023 OEWS and BLS May 2025 OEWS. The job and worker labels are retained as reported for each year.
Wage figures are estimates for an occupation and period, not guarantees for every family physician. The national mean and median answer different questions: the mean is affected by values across the distribution, while the median identifies the midpoint reported by BLS. The 2023 percentile figures further show that earnings varied substantially within the occupation.
Selected state and metro statistics
The BLS May 2023 OEWS data show variation in reported employment and mean annual wages across selected locations. Wisconsin had 1,700 family medicine physician jobs and a mean annual wage of $276,580. Colorado had 3,470 jobs and a mean wage of $244,640, while Connecticut had 1,580 jobs and a mean wage of $230,610.
Idaho reported 730 jobs and a mean annual wage of $240,150. Oregon reported 1,340 jobs and a mean wage of $228,660. Alabama reported 490 jobs and a mean wage of $232,800. In the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metropolitan area, BLS reported 1,720 jobs and a mean annual wage of $259,090.
| Location | Jobs reported | Mean annual wage |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 490 | $232,800 |
| Colorado | 3,470 | $244,640 |
| Connecticut | 1,580 | $230,610 |
| Idaho | 730 | $240,150 |
| Oregon | 1,340 | $228,660 |
| Wisconsin | 1,700 | $276,580 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro area | 1,720 | $259,090 |
Source: BLS state and metropolitan OEWS data. All figures in this table are for May 2023.
The location figures are useful for describing geographic differences, but they are not a ranking of job quality or a direct measure of affordability. They report employment and mean wage for the occupation in the specified area and month. A national family medicine workforce can therefore coexist with very different local employment counts, pay estimates, and access conditions.